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New Champions Online preview hints at villains
The guys over at 1up.com have a great two page preview/interview covering Champions Online. The preview itself covers quite a bit, including Cryptic's time with the Marvel MMO, customization in Champions Online, combat, the Xbox 360 version and of course some hints at what we may see for villains. Overall the preview expands on a lot of these subjects, with quotes for Jack Emmert giving away a detail or two here and there.The big tease about the villains has really piqued our curiosity, as Emmert says, "But it's something we're thinking about in Champions: Is the gameplay experience the same for a hero and a villain? But that's part of our top-secret plan we're not talking about."A lot of people on the official forums have been clamoring for some kind of villain gameplay and Cryptic has previously shown they pay attention to the community. We would love to see the villain side play dramatically different from the hero side of Champions Online. The big question left to Cryptic is exactly how villains will be a different experience from heroes?
The Digital Continuum: Cinematic combat
I've played a lot of MMOs in my life, but to be honest I've grown very tired of the tried-and-true combat most games offer. For a long time I've thought that maybe adding extra layers of mechanics on top of the combat -- like WAR seems to be doing -- would help, but now I'm not so sure that's quite the right answersDo I think that real-time combat is the only answer? No. While I love that type of gameplay, there is definitely something to be said for the combat styles of Everquest, Everquest II, World of Warcraft and the upcoming Warhammer Online. However, to maintain overall player interest, traditional combat in MMOs seriously needs to evolve.
Sonic Chronicles website releases new screens showing off battle system
Sega has gotten around to launching the official website for upcoming DS title Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood. And, most perplexing to us here at DS Fanboy is the battle system for the game. Since we have nothing but screens to look at, it's kind of hard to estimate exactly how these new targeting rings (that's what we're assuming they are) will mesh with the turn-based battle system.Sure, we've seen in-battle screens before, but none of them had these weird rings. We're assuming they'll work with the stylus (uh-duh), but wonder if they'll be anything like the rings you must tap in Ouendan and Elite Beat Agents, or if they'll work in some other manner? We know the battle system for Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood utilizes combos, so maybe the rings will work with that in some way? Oh well, looks like we'll have to wait and find out. In the meanwhile, see the new screens in our gallery below.%Gallery-16398%
Chronicles of Spellborn: Combat for Beginners
Face to face with a monster. Its soulless eyes glint blackly from the light of the Deadspell Storm. Its smell -- that awful stench -- may be its greatest weapon, but you do not come unprepared. You have your trusty falchion, worn but true. Your armor has been nicked and scratched and is no longer as shiny as when the blacksmith sold it, but it's honest chain and will turn a blade, or a claw. And of course, you have your trusty deck of cards. "Let's do this," you snarl. You turn the top card over...Combat in Chronicles of Spellborn isn't the simple deal (cough sorry) we've come to expect in our MMOs. Instead of having a fixed set of abilities governed by cast timers and cool-downs, the abilities in Spellborn are controlled by cards, one for each action. You set up your cards in up to five columns -- for instance, one for mêlée, another for mêlée and debuffs, one for magic, another for ranged, and the last for healing. As you use an ability all columns move to the next row (or tier), and so on. Want to guarantee a finishing move is always available? Put them diagonally across your columns. For tips on how to make combos, and how to construct your deck so that the buffs and debuffs support your attacks, Spellborn dev El Drijver brings us his Combat for Beginners game design journal. Check out our previous coverage of this innovative MMO coming out of the Netherlands in the near future.
Ask Massively: Now that World of Warcraft is perfect...
Just when you thought you couldn't get any sicker of news surrounding the 2.4 patch for World of Warcraft, here we are again with another edition of Ask Massively. Here at Ask Massively, we like to consider ourselves the "Anti-Trendy" crowd, not because we all shop at Hot Topic or put bumper stickers that preach non-conformity on our SUV's (Mass produced non-conformity? I digress...), but because we like to take stories that have been beaten to death and take a look at them from a slightly more skewed perspective.This week's inspiration comes from a young lady named Tara.Dear Massively Massive Guy,I've been playing World of Warcraft for quite some time, but I wonder what other games do that WoW doesn't. What games offer features that may someday be implemented by Blizzard? Surely, Blizzard doesn't innovate everything that is popular in MMORPGs.Curiously Yours,TaraIf you would like to be immortalized in electronic print, send us a question via our tipline, or by email at ask AT Massively DOT com. To the nice Nigerian gentleman who wants to enter into a business arrangement, the check is in the mail. For more on this topic, feel free to read on after the jump.
Six reasons to be excited about Age of Conan
Everyone seems to be aware of one or two great features coming with Age of Conan, but we realized that not everybody has a complete view of some of the coolest ones -- which has led us to sort of a blind men and the elephant situation. So in an effort to give a more complete view of why Funcom's newest title looks exceedingly cool, we've gone and thought of six reasons to truly be excited about Age of Conan. Our barbarian urges are beginning to take over, so we'd better get to the good stuff before we run into the hills and slaughter a bear or something. Take a look by simply clicking the image above or the gallery link below.%Gallery-19114%
The Hyborian Insider shows off AoC combat
The first in a new video series called The Hyborian Insider has been listed on Age of Conan's community site. The opening episode looks at the combat mechanics in the game, with a detailed breakdown of the system. Hosted by the game's product manager Erling Ellingsen, the video looks at things we've mostly seen before (like the attacking and defending mechanics), but it's still a good watch that sums everything up in just a few short minutes. We're looking forward to seeing what The Hyborian Insider #2 will focus on, with the big combat issue out of the way.
The Daily Grind: Do you want real-time combat?
Quite a few MMOs are eschewing the standard auto-attack combat for newer and -- some would say -- better methods. Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa were two of the first major MMO titles to try this with varying success, but we've still got a good amount of games coming down the pipeline with a real-time combat focus. Age of Conan, The Agency and Champions Online are the games which seem to be creating the most buzz at the moment.So we thought -- in the spirit of curiosity -- that it would be interesting to see just how many of you are genuinely looking forward to real-time combat over the auto-attacking standard of most modern-day big budget MMOs. Would you like to run around in the world of Hyboria, swinging your great-axe every which-way to your heart's content? Or would you rather keep closer to the current system of locking on, auto-attacking and stringing together binded special attacks? %Poll-11738%
Jumpgate to offer more than just combat
Say your cruising around an asteroid belt in the upcoming sci-fi MMO, Jumpgate Evolution. Since you buddy is due to hop online any minute so the two of you can shoot the light fantastic, you'd rather not engage in any heavy combat until your wing man pops on. What to do?Well, according to Hermann Peterscheck, JGE's producer, there's a lot more to do then just shooting womprats (or whatever the equivalent will be in the JGE universe). The big three activities for the game are combat, resource gathering and crafting, but there will be many other things to do. Players can speculate in the market, get paid to help cargo haulers on dangerous runs, engage in PvP to earn top spot on the various ladders and rankings, or collect the many different medals, titles, ships and powerful equipment. NetDevil is also looking to include mini-games that break up the core game.
Breakfast Topic: Spell pushback
Spellpower of Malfurion posted on the Priest forums that spell pushback is an indication that Blizzard prefers melee classes over spell casters. In his thread, the original poster used the example of a sixteen-second actual cast time for a second and a half spell due to spell pushback. This greatly reduced the effect of casters against melee classes. Songbreeze of Dragonmaw echoed this sentiment with the response, "Welcome to World of Meleecraft." Other posters disagreed. Some stated that many PvE encounters favor casters. Nemarra of Tichondrius pointed out that melee characters have an equal disadvantage at range. Casters also have access to instant spells and abilities such as Blink, Frost Nova and Curse of Exhaustion to help them get out of melee range. Others have access to Power Word Shield and Earth Shield that mitigate the effects of pushback. If you're concerned about spell pushback, you should pay particular attention to how your spec can mitigate it.
Age of Conan dev video diary 5: melee combat!
Melee combat. It's one of the main reasons that a lot of people have so much interest in Age of Conan, and it's definitely something that makes the game stand out next to other MMOs. Having thrown out the traditional "auto-attack" altogether, AoC plays more like an action game, and in the newly released Developer Video Diary 5, we get an explanation of some of the finer points of this combat system.
Cross-faction inspecting now available on the PTR
Great news for compulsive /inspect-ors from the new patch -- Hortus confirms that in neutral areas and out of combat, players will be able to do a little cross-faction inspecting. No more will you have to wonder what kind of helmet that dirty Human Warrior is wearing around Shattrath -- you'll be able to pull them right up and check out all of their gear.The sky, as you may have noticed, didn't fall when Inspect changed back in patch 2.3 to let anyone see anyone else's gear and talents, and it won't fall again when this change is introduced (trust me). It is interesting to consider how much the Armory has changed the game, though -- odds are that if you'd suggested that we should be able to check the other faction's gear and talents to a developer at the launch of vanilla WoW, they'd have said that, like limiting cross-faction communication, it wasn't right for the feel of the game they wanted to make.But now that the Armory is up and showing off everyone's secret gear of shame, there's no reason to hide it any more in the game either.
Encrypted Text: Raiding as a Rogue, Part II
Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues.Last time, when I discussed raiding on your rogue, I talked about the differences between the 3 talent trees as they relate to raiding, and the Hit cap. A couple of people made comments that basically say there is no magic number for Hit rating that you need to be at, and this is true. I'm not advocating stacking hit at the expense of all your other stats. There should be a balance, and you don't want to gimp yourself in other areas just to stack Hit rating.Today, one of the things I'm talking about is the Expertise cap, which should be viewed in a similar light -- the information is there so that you can make good decisions regarding your gear. Don't just run out and start stacking Hit and Expertise and leave your other stats to twist in the wind.
TurpsterVision: Don't tell Adam but I've been fooling around with EVE
Every Tuesday think "T" for Turpster and take the "a" in "day", capitalise it, remove the little bit in the middle, turn it upside down and you get a "V". Put the two together and you'll have TV for TurpsterVision -- the best Internet video podcast on Massively! (Never mind that business about it being the only video podcast on Massively...)It's Tuesday! Hooray! If you like having intellectual discussions about current political events and their impact on the everyday life of the brave men and women serving abroad fighting for our freedom then I am afraid you have come to the wrong place. I don't have a clue about the wars going on here on planet Earth. What I do know about however, is a MMO universe so vast and EPIC that I makes the petty struggles of this world seem insignificant. That is right folks; today we are flying and fighting for our very lives in the turbulent universe of EVE Online!Join us after the break if you think you are truly hardcore enough to play in a universe where you can Alt-Tab while you are meant to be working.
New MMOs breaking the combat mold?
With the recent death of Gary Gygax, one of the original creators of Dungeons and Dragons, lots of people have stopped to reflect on the way his work continues to affect the games we play. In many ways, the dominant style of MMO combat we see in games today, particularly in the Everquest and World of Warcraft vein, is a direct descendant of tabletop gameplay. As much as that model has served us well over the years, some, like JoBildo over at TTH, believe that the future of MMO combat is almost upon us, and once we see the light, we'll never want to go back.It does certainly seem like combat is one of the most obvious areas where MMOs can use improvement, which is why it's really not so surprising to see so many developers try and attack it in order to become 'the next big thing.' Still, new combat systems haven't really done anything to help the success of DDO or Tabula Rasa, and rumors are flying around that the combat is just about the only thing going right in Age of Conan. You just don't see gamers defecting from World of Warcraft and its relatively old-school combat system, which leads one to believe that gamers are still more interested in the package deal. Including new ways to swing a sword will get you some curious attention at first, but in order to keep players coming back you've got to have a lot more than that.
iRobot garners award for DARPA LANdroids initiative
Get ready, battlefields, as yet another iRobot is gearing up to take you all by storm. Announced today, the aforementioned outfit has received an award under DARPA's LANdroids program which will enable it to "develop a new portable communications relay robot that is small, inexpensive, intelligent and robust." The resulting creature will reportedly be used in "dense urban environments to rapidly deploy and maintain a vital communications infrastructure," and better still, they'll be tough enough to be thrown into position and intelligent enough to "autonomously detect and avoid obstacles while navigating." Unfortunately, it seems the conclusion of said project is still a few years out, but we can already envision soldiers getting antsy to never be forced to utter "can you hear me now?" again.[Via InformationWeek]
The Daily Grind: Is combat necessary?
For most of us the term 'MMO' conjures up images of combat, whether within a medieval fantasy setting, or a science fiction milieu. Other images are mixed in there, too, of course, but I'd wager that fighting is the one that pops up most often. It's so common, in fact, that when a game deviates from this norm, attention is called to it. Take Mabinogi, for instance -- many of its features are non-combat-based, like the aging system, or the ability to create MIDI-based music, or the creation and management of a household with a spouse.I didn't realize how refreshing the thought of not having to constantly battle creatures to progress in a game was until Mabinogi offered me these alternatives. This makes me ask the question: is combat really an integral element of an MMO? Would you play a game that lacked it completely?
Encrypted Text: Raiding as a Rogue, Part I
Every Wednesday, Elizabeth Wachowski or Chris Jahosky write Encrypted Text, a look into the shadowy world of rogues. This week on Encrypted Text is the first part in a small mini-series of articles that should serve as a guide for any up and coming rogues looking to start raiding. I will cover a few of the more raid-friendly specs, talk about their strengths and weaknesses, the hit and expertise caps, and the type of gear you should be looking for. Combat vs. Assassination and SubtletyI'll be the first to admit that many Combat heavy builds, especially Combat daggers (which I was for a long time while raiding), are not inherently fun to play.
Breakfast Topic: Skill or +resilience gear?
The calls go out through trade chat, "Premade AB, must have 250 resil." "Warlock looking for 5v5, have 400 resil, pst." It takes some doing but with Season 1 (soon to be Season 2) Arena gear available as PvP honor rewards, this is not outrageous. Changes on the public test realm that allow the purchase of Gladiator gear with Badges of Justice would make it still easier to acquire gear that is loaded with resilience. Resilience was introduced along with the Burning Cruasde, and has had a massive impact on PvP gear. This combat statistic was designed to reduce the chance of being struck with a critical hit. It also reduces the damage caused by a critical strike. This stat was implemented in order to extend PvP combat.The presence of resilience is the main feature of PvP gear that sets it apart from PvE gear.
The Daily Grind: Would you ever play a noncombatant?
Watching a recent Cinemassively, it occurred to me that in MMOs, everyone is a warrior. By that, I mean that everyone fights -- some with weapons, some with magic, etc. There are probably games out there that don't require combat as a method of advancing the game, but I'm not privy to any of them. No matter what you look like, or roleplay, you will do battle at some point.But what if there was a game that let you progress through other means? What if you were a diplomat or politician, with different goals and abilities? What if you had to be protected by other players as you made your way through the game world, dependent on them for your survival? Would that be fun? Would you ever choose to play a noncombatant and watch other players hog all the glory?
